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Iran says it launched missiles and drones at U.S. bases across four Middle Eastern countries after a U.S. strike near an Iranian wedding killed five people—the Strait of Hormuz fight has officially developed a nasty habit of finding new places to get worse.
Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against U.S. bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Kuwait on Wednesday, escalating a war increasingly centered on control of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran says the attacks were retaliation for a U.S. strike Tuesday near Kuhestak in southern Iran that killed five people and injured 68 when shrapnel struck a residential building hosting a wedding.
Four countries, multiple U.S. bases, and ballistic missiles flying across borders—this is no longer an escalation contained neatly inside Iran.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted American installations across the region, including “the headquarters and residence of the American commander at Ali Al Salem Air Base” in Kuwait. The IRGC claimed U.S. personnel were killed, but that claim had not been independently verified. Kuwait said its air defenses confronted Iranian missile and drone attacks, while Jordan said 13 Iranian ballistic missiles entered its airspace, with 10 destroyed and three falling in remote areas.
Iran says the retaliation followed Tuesday’s U.S. strikes near Kuhestak in Hormozgan province. Iranian officials said five people were killed and 68 wounded after shrapnel hit the wedding site.
The IRGC called the U.S. action “a malicious attack,” adding: “In a flagrant violation of human rights, the child-killing American military bombed a residential home in Sirik and drenched it in blood, turning the marriage celebration of a young and respected Sunni couple into mourning.”
Iranian parliament national security commission chief Ebrahim Azizi was equally direct: “Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished.”
The broader war began in late February over Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. pressure for regime change, but the battlefield has increasingly narrowed around the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM says its latest strikes followed attempted IRGC attacks against commercial shipping and U.S. forces. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, says the United States has “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” (it doesn’t) and isn’t currently trying to push Tehran back to negotiations. With Iran now firing at American bases across the region, “control” is doing some fairly ambitious work in that sentence.
Editor: The Strait of Hormuz was already a geopolitical tinderbox. Adding Iranian missiles aimed at U.S. bases in four countries is less “freedom of navigation” and more “everybody check where the nearest bunker is.”
Source: UPI
After 286 days at sea supporting the war against Iran, the USS Abraham Lincoln finally pulled into Thailand with roughly 5,000 sailors aboard—and nearby Pattaya may want to stock up on everything from cold beer to penicillin.
The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in eastern Thailand Wednesday for its first full port visit after an extraordinary 286 days at sea, giving its roughly 5,000 service members a long-awaited chance for rest and recovery after supporting the U.S. war against Iran. The carrier’s deployment included more than 250 uninterrupted days at sea, with reports of supply shortages and deteriorating crew morale adding to concerns about just how long sailors had been kept aboard.
Nine months at sea. Five thousand sailors. Pattaya nearby. Local pharmacies might want to check their inventory.
The Lincoln pulled into Laem Chabang looking every bit like a ship that’s been worked hard, with AP journalists noting large patches resembling rust along the hull. Capt. Dan Keeler called the appearance “normal for a long deployment.” Asked about President Donald Trump’s comment that the carrier’s record-setting deployment was “not nearly long enough,” Keeler offered an answer that probably deserves some kind of Navy diplomacy medal: “So, the president speaks for himself. That is what I think about that.”
The USS George Washington relieved the Lincoln in the Middle East in August, finally allowing the carrier and its crew to head for Thailand. Many sailors are expected to spend their leave in Pattaya, the nearby beach resort famous for nightlife and tourism. Thai officials are boosting security while anticipating a significant economic bump. After 286 days aboard a floating city, several thousand sailors suddenly receiving shore leave in Pattaya should certainly provide one—along with, perhaps, a statistically noticeable increase in demand for responsible adult decision-making and sexual-health services.
For the families waiting, however, this port call isn’t a punchline. Shakeira Fairfax traveled from New Jersey to reunite with her 25-year-old daughter Jada, a Lincoln crew member who had spent nearly her entire first deployment at sea. During the hardest stretches, Jada asked her mother for something remarkably simple: “Just tell me old stories.” After nine months of war, isolation, and reportedly sagging morale, the Lincoln’s sailors have earned some time on solid ground. Here’s hoping they enjoy Thailand, reconnect with their families, and remember that what happens in Pattaya stays in Pattaya, and occasionally requires antibiotics.
Editor: Nine months without a real port call followed by thousands of sailors descending on Pattaya? The Navy calls it “rest and recovery.” Epidemiologists may have their own terminology.
Source: Associated Press
Massachusetts Democrats were offered a 47-year-old Marine veteran promising generational change or an 80-year-old progressive who has been in Congress since Gerald Ford was president—and they decided the birth certificate mattered less than the politics.
Sen. Ed Markey demolished Rep. Seth Moulton in Massachusetts’ Democratic Senate primary, handing voters a pretty clear verdict: They weren’t interested in trading an 80-year-old progressive stalwart for a 47-year-old moderate simply because the replacement came with fewer miles on the odometer. Markey’s victory matters because this wasn’t really just old versus young—it was a fight over what kind of Democrat Massachusetts voters wanted representing them.
Moulton offered a new generation; Markey convinced Democratic voters that new isn’t necessarily the same thing as progressive.
That’s the real contrast.
Markey has spent recent years firmly planted on the Democratic Party’s progressive flank, co-authoring the Green New Deal and winning backing from Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren.
Moulton, an Iraq War veteran who served four combat tours before winning a House seat in 2014, built a more moderate record and ran largely on the argument that Democrats needed younger leaders capable of confronting a rapidly changing world. His supporters pointed to issues such as artificial intelligence and argued that Markey’s age could leave him disconnected from technologies Congress is supposed to regulate.
Markey’s younger supporters countered that ideology and legislative record mattered more than knowing which AI app was running on an iPad.
Moulton’s biggest problem was that Massachusetts Democrats had reasons beyond age to distinguish the candidates. His 2024 comments saying he didn’t want his daughters competing against transgender girls angered progressives, even after he apologized and emphasized his support for other transgender-rights legislation. Markey hammered him over it.
Moulton also tried to distance himself from the Democratic establishment, pledged to oppose Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader, and portrayed Markey’s five decades in Washington as evidence that the status quo had failed.
But Markey had an answer that neatly turned the generational argument around: “Generational change isn’t about compromising, to do the small things better. It’s about fighting to do the big things best.”
That’s what makes the result more interesting than another octogenarian refusing to surrender the office keys. Markey isn’t merely an elderly incumbent hanging around because nobody can convince him to leave. He has maintained credibility with younger progressives, while Moulton’s relative youth didn’t automatically translate into ideological kinship with those voters. The Democratic debate over aging leadership isn’t going away, particularly after Joe Biden’s 2024 exit. But Massachusetts just supplied an important footnote: Voters concerned about gerontocracy may still distinguish between politicians they see as the old guard and old politicians whose politics they still want.
Editor: Apparently Massachusetts Democrats looked at an 80-year-old senator who entered Congress in 1976 and said, “Sure, he’s old—but have you checked his voting record?” Somewhere, Father Time is updating his voter-registration status.
Source: The Atlantic
Syria spent years being synonymous with civil war, sanctions, and wreckage. Now the Iran war has given Damascus an unlikely sales pitch: Forget Hormuz and ship your oil through us instead.
With wartime restrictions choking cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Syria is positioning itself as an alternative route between the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean—and 5,000 tanker trucks a day are already hauling Iraqi oil across the country. More than 18 months after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government sees geography, sanctions relief, and regional turmoil as an opportunity to turn battered Syria into a transportation and energy hub.
Nothing says geopolitical reinvention quite like going from international pariah to “Have you considered routing your oil through Syria?”
The biggest bet is a proposed 1,000-mile, $5.7 billion pipeline capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude per day from Basra in southern Iraq to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Baniyas. The Trump administration announced its support in July for the Chevron-led project, which would follow roughly the same route now traveled by tanker trucks.
Trump envoy Tom Barrack said the pipeline could help make the Strait of Hormuz “an afterthought.”
Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain could eventually have reasons to connect to a Mediterranean route as well, particularly as the Iran war has demonstrated just how vulnerable Gulf exporters are when Hormuz—or even the Red Sea—becomes dangerous.
There’s just one minor complication: This pipeline would run through Syria and western Iraq. Islamic State cells remain active, Iran-backed militias dominate parts of the proposed route, Syria is still clearing mines, and infrastructure left by years of civil war ranges from damaged to nonexistent.
Energy specialist Gabriel Mitchell put the problem plainly: “The delivery of physical security for any kind of pipeline infrastructure is going to be the number one challenge.”
Syrian officials say the consortium is discussing drones and advanced surveillance to protect the pipeline, while pointing to those thousands of oil trucks already crossing the country without major security incidents.
Still, Syria’s pitch extends beyond petroleum. Officials are pursuing railway links with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, trucking agreements with Iraq, and possible future gas infrastructure, all built around the country’s oldest competitive advantage: Location.
Syria sits between the Gulf, Europe, Turkey, and the Mediterranean, and its government wants to reclaim the trading-hub role the region held centuries ago.
One Syrian security official summed it up perfectly: “We’re at the crossroads of the Middle East.” The irony is hard to miss—the Iran war that has scrambled global energy markets may wind up creating one of post-Assad Syria’s biggest economic opportunities.
Editor: For decades Syria’s location helped make it everybody’s battlefield. Now Damascus would very much like to monetize the same map. In the Middle East, apparently even geography gets a rebranding campaign.
Source: The Washington Post
ICE says a Chinese immigrant died less than a day after entering detention, becoming the 57th detainee death recorded since President Trump’s second term began—and a policy change means even that grim number doesn’t tell the whole story.
A 51-year-old Chinese immigrant was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead less than a day after entering immigration detention, marking the 57th detainee death recorded since President Donald Trump’s second term began. Twenty-four of those deaths have occurred since January 1, while other immigrants who suffered medical emergencies in custody and died after being released are no longer included in the government’s official tally.
When people can suffer a medical crisis in detention, be released, and then disappear from the government’s death statistics, the accounting starts looking awfully convenient.
Lianyong Wei was arrested Aug. 21 in the Northern Mariana Islands after allegedly attacking a family inside their home. His legal immigration status had expired in 2019, and ICE took him into custody the following day pending removal proceedings. By the morning of Aug. 23, a corrections officer found Wei unresponsive during routine checks at the Saipan facility. He was transported to an emergency room and pronounced dead around 7:30 a.m. His cause of death remains under investigation. Federal rules require detainees to receive a basic health screening within 12 hours of intake, but DHS did not tell NPR whether Wei received one, instead saying: “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”
Then there’s what doesn’t make the official number. Guatemalan immigrant Jose Chajon-Raxon suffered “seizure-like activity” one day after intake at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall, was hospitalized, and subsequently released from ICE custody. It remains unclear whether he died the same day he was released.
Prisciliano Trejo, 29, was detained in Georgia while suffering from leukemia. His family says he requested medical help July 6, but it wasn’t approved for eight days. He fell into a coma July 15, was released from ICE custody that day, and died July 24.
Neither man’s death is included in ICE’s detainee-death count.
That’s because the Trump administration eliminated a Biden-era requirement in June that ICE report deaths occurring within 30 days after release.
DHS defended the change by telling NPR: “Per ICE policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody, then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur.”
There is a legitimate distinction between dying in government custody and dying after release—but when a detainee suffers a serious medical emergency while confined, gets released, and dies shortly afterward, pretending the second event has nothing worth tracking about the first doesn’t exactly scream transparency.
Editor: If your death statistics improve because you changed when you stop counting, congratulations—you’ve discovered the bureaucratic equivalent of stepping off the scale before it finishes calculating. NOTE that Trump did this with COVID, too (stopped counting, and caring.)
Source: NPR
Milo Yiannopoulos spent years cheering Trump’s immigration crackdown, then got detained by ICE, deported to Britain, and emerged saying he’s ashamed he ever supported Trump—#FAFO has rarely produced a more committed brand ambassador.
Far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos says he’s “very ashamed” he ever supported Donald Trump after ICE detained him in Louisiana and deported him to the United Kingdom. The former Trump booster says he was denied a phone call and access to a nurse, shuffled between facilities, and left frightened, humiliated, and disoriented—which makes Milo #FAFO personified.
It’s amazing how quickly “tough immigration enforcement” becomes government cruelty when you’re the immigrant being enforced upon.
Yiannopoulos told Piers Morgan that the optimism he felt about Trump in 2016 had collapsed into what he called an “ugly, warmongering, whole mentally ill heap of crazy.” That’s quite a conversion for a man who acknowledged cheering ICE operations himself. Milo now says enforcement should concentrate on violent criminals and drug dealers. He maintains that immigration officials sent warnings concerning his work visa to old addresses, never contacted his attorney, and denied him basic access while he was detained.
“It was humiliating, and it was disorientating...it was physically degrading. It was frightening,” he said.
Yiannopoulos says he applied for a Green Card in 2017 after marrying an American man and had no reason to intentionally overstay a visa because he could have pursued sponsorship through multiple employers. He also unloaded on fellow Trump-world provocateur Laura Loomer, who claimed she reported him to immigration authorities. Yiannopoulos described her relationship with Trump as “symbiotic” and “toxic,” arguing that Trump tolerates her behavior because “he likes anybody who praises him.” Apparently getting deported has done wonders for Milo’s willingness to review the MAGA customer-service experience.
There’s a legitimate immigration-status question underneath all the spectacle, and Yiannopoulos can challenge the government’s handling of his case through whatever legal avenues remain available. But the political irony requires absolutely no embellishment. A provocateur who applauded aggressive ICE enforcement experienced detention himself and discovered that the machinery feels rather different from inside it. That’s not merely finding out after fucking around. That’s #FAFO earning British citizenship, boarding a transatlantic flight, and giving a postgame interview.
Editor: Milo spent years helping sell the “leopards eating people’s faces” agenda, then seemed genuinely displeased when immigration enforcement ate his own face. Somewhere, irony just threw out its back carrying this story.
Source: Mediaite
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